Brand Essentials Affiliates Get Bonus!

I am excited to have my Brand Essentials Home Study Program connected to an online store so that all of my supporters can help me spread the word about this powerful brand program as well as make some extra cash at the same time! Now you can become an affiliate.

Sign on to be a Brand Essentials affiliate and each time that you refer someone to purchase this powerful 106 page Guide & Workbook, you'll receive an affiliate reward! Just go to Brand Essentials store page

Refer others or even use your affiliate link to take a couple of dollars off of your purchase. I am eager to provide these steps to as many entrepreneurs and small business owners as possible and I can use your help.

BONUS: Refer 25 people to the Brand Essentials Home Study Program by December 1, 2009 and I will reward you with "Hromada Brand Cash" worth up to $100 off of your design package or brand coaching program with Lisa Hromada ID Studio. (p.s. you'd also be earning approximately $50 in affiliates cash by referring 25 individuals who you believe can benefit from building a strong brand foundation. How awesome is that?!)

Here's how to do it: Sign up as an affiliate >> click on "Affiliate fee" link >> sign in >> get your affiliate link >> then simply start referring the Brand Essentials Home Study Program to those whom you know who can benefit most ~ acquaintances, clients and friends. They will appreciate you for providing them with a valuable recommendation to help them create greater brand success and you'll appreciate the extra bit of income for each referral!

Here is the direct page: Brand Essentials Affiliate

Learn more about Brand Essentials at: LisaHromada.com

WAIT, There's more! A portion of my Brand Essentials Home Study program is featured as a bonus to a powerful new Mastermind starting soon by Cheryl Vallejos of Prime Leaders. Don't miss this opportunity to increase your personal and professional success by leaps and bounds! Watch for information from Prime Leaders soon. (October 2009)

Thank you and have a beautiful day,
Lisa Hromada
Personal Brand Strategist & Designer

** FREE women of success e-book coming soon to my Brand Excellence subscribers. Grab your copy as soon as it comes out by signing up for my newsletter at: http://www.lisahromada.com

Three Keys to Developing a Personal Brand

The internet has sparked a trend called ‘Personal Branding’. Branding identifies and differentiates you, your business, and your products and services so you stand out from the crowd, get noticed – and get hired.

Personal Branding can be the most powerful tool for success in your self-marketing toolkit.It involves identifying your key strengths and expertise, identifying the real needs that you can meet for your ideal clients, and then communicating your message consistently in many different ways.

You can identify, package and market who you are to build a personal brand that leads to business growth, influence, and income.

Here are three key things you need to develop a strong personal brand:

1. A clear, unique strength, talent, or expertise.

Get clear on your personal strengths, talents, values, and core area of expertise. Understand how you connect best with people. Consider what your target audience needs and wants, and then identify the value and the experience that you can deliver to meet those needs and wants. Communicate in ways that reach into the hearts and minds of your target audience and connect with their core values and deepest desires.

2. An ability to clearly articulate that uniqueness.

The personal branding process is about having self-awareness of your strengths and talents, and then letting everyone know about your gifts, talents, and experience. It’s about giving a clear impression of who you are, what you value, what you’re committed to, and how you can be counted upon to act. It’s about having clear, key marketing messages to convey in all of your communications with prospects and clients.

Your branding statement must provide a clear, concise view of your unique set of strengths and tell why you can do it better than anyone else. You need to be able to state clearly and unequivocally why you are different than everyone else, and what services you offer that make you unique and set you ahead of your competition.

3. The persistence to communicate your brand consistently through many channels.

Consistency is one of the keys to building a strong personal brand. Be aware of being consistent in every interaction you have, both in what you say and how you respond.

Your brand is developed over time by all the associations made, the expectations met, the messages communicated, and the services delivered. A great way to deliver a consistent message is through an email newsletter that you send on a regular basis to clients and prospects. You can write articles in your area of expertise so that over time people come to know and trust you. They’ll know what you stand for, how knowledgeable you are, and how you work with clients.

Establishing a Professional Brand is absolutely critical to long term, sustainable business growth. In an overcrowded marketplace, if you’re not standing out, then you’re invisible. Branding your products and services will give you an edge over your competition and enhance your value to your target market.

Personal Branding will differentiate you, your business, and your products and services so that you stand out from the crowd, get noticed – and get hired.
The marketplace is waiting for you to make your mark on it. What are you waiting for?

Personal Branding is all about knowing what you have to offer to your marketplace and what makes you different from everyone else so that you can stand out and be recognized and remembered. It is having a reputation for delivering a product, program, or service that delivers extreme value to your target market.

Fill in your answers to the following to gain clarity on the unique aspects of your Professional Brand:

1. My top three personal strengths:

2. My top three talents:

3. My core area of expertise:

4. What my target audience needs and wants:

5. The value and the experience I can deliver to meet those needs and wants:

6. What I can do better than anyone else:

7. What services I offer that differentiate me and set me ahead of my competition:

Developing a brand identity is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. With some thought and creativity, all the pieces will eventually fit.

Copyright 2006 by Jan Marie Dore. http://www.janmariedore.com Jan Marie Dore publishes the newsletter ‘Success Secrets for Women Entrepreneurs’. She teaches solo professional women marketing and sales strategies to attract new clients, grow their business, and make more money. Subscribe and be invited to free teleseminars at http://www.femalepreneurs.com

Small Business Brand Identity Strategies

"Does a brand identity matter when you are a start-up?" Sleepless nights, a staff of three to do the work of 20, and the doubters will test your stamina to survive the start-up game. I suppose if it were easy, every person with an idea would be doing it. Start-ups require lots more than possession of an idea. They require an uncanny drive to succeed, a fearless spirit, a sense of humor and thick skin.

Your company brand may be a mere seed in the beginning, but the day you open your doors for business, you've got at least two brands, 1) your start-up business brand, and 2) your personal brand, both equally as important.

Let's start with your personal brand. Will a serious vendor give you the time of day, when you are a small potato with little volume? Will your associates write angel-funding checks without a proven concept? Can you recruit great staff with no office and no benefit plan? Probably not -- unless you're personal brand is rock solid.

Make your personal brand a daily project of continuous improvement before you dive into the start-up business pool. Become an expert or seek advice from consultants. Whether these are academic credentials or life achievements, have your story down, both in written form and be able to quickly articulate it in conversion. Package yourself, look like a successful trusted leader.

Fundamentally, your brand identity is the visual interpretation of your cause, business, or products. It is the way in which we recognize and distinguish one company from another. A brand identity typically consists of one or more of the following elements:
- a logotype (the typographic treatment of the business name)
- a logo (a graphic symbol or icon)
- a tagline (a short description, slogan or musical jingle)
- a color palette (one or more colors used highlight your identity).

Streamline your logotype. Is it hard to read? Is your typeface dated? Or maybe it's just non-descript and nothing special. A valuable logo deserves a refreshed color palette that pops. Does it scream the groovy seventies and you're a technology company? Or does it say plain Jane when really; your boutique sells the funkiest stuff in town?

If you don't have a tagline or musical jingle, create one. If you do, incorporate it into your brand identity. A creative tagline or slogan is another element of your identity to help the consumer connect with your brand. It may be a descriptive statement about the company's services (like FedEx's - Absolutely, positively overnight) or a call to action (like Apple's - Think different or Nike's - Just do it). Either way, it should be brief, memorable, and should speak to the essential mission statement of your organization.

Use it or lose it. Everywhere and anywhere you can. From the doormat, to the screensaver on the office computers, the logo and its elements should be used in a consistent manner, reflecting and reinforcing the brand identity.

Remember, your brand identity is the sum of all you do. It's what the market thinks, feels and expects. It's your purpose, competitive advantages, personality and promise. This is why brand planning and protection are so important in young companies. Unless you have a crystal ball, there are a lot of unknowns about the future of your start-up.

So, what is a sustainable brand identity? A sustainable brand identity includes ALL of the above "brand identity" elements plus a concept and design that is:
- unique and distinguishable; example, eco-friendly concepts add value
- efficient and effective in communication of key messages and personality stories
- used in a consistent manner throughout all visual marketplace touch-points

A sustainable identity is stylistically and functionally adaptable so it grows with you and your business. The sustainable brand is one that flourishes over time, across product lines and diverse multimedia platforms.
A sustainable brand identity is vital because it can help people to make an immediate connection with your product or service and then retain that connection building a relationship with loyal customers through good times and bad. This is often defined as customer relationship management (CRM).

In this age of technology and communication, we have a virtually unlimited selection of choices. There's little time to make a big first impression. A sustainable identity will communicate more efficiently and effectively your message. As a result, your brand identity will endure enabling your startup to achieve rich rewards.

About the author: Ellisa Brenneman started her career, after receiving her Bachelor Degree from the University of British Columbia, with the Canadian government merging academic rigor and business savvy to produce and disseminate research findings. She has been published multiple times in scientific journals for her research findings. A born entrepreneur; her zeal for entrepreneurism soon took hold. She's started green businesses and has vast experience managing public, media and investor relations for small-cap public companies. Ellisa is the owner of Ethos Mentor. Ethos Mentor provides entrepreneurs with affordable one on one mentoring, business coaching and capital raising services so they can launch and grow their businesses. Visithttp://www.ethosmentor.com for additional information.

Confident Business Women - 7 Confidence Building Ideas For Women in Business and Leadership

Women in business need confidence in order to succeed. Having a strong level of confidence means living a healthier, better leadership and business life. Here are 7 confidence building ideas for women in business and leadership.

1. Recognize Your Unique Talents. Having unique talents can mean being and feeling different from other people. For instance, you might have an unusually strong sense of intuition. You might be able to see a problem before others by putting loose ends together in your mind. Instead of seeing this as a detriment because no one else seems to be able to do the same thing, learn to recognize where you are different as a unique talent. Embrace your unique talents and use them to move your business to new heights and to be a stronger leader.

2. Use Personal Potential. Recognize that you have unusual personal potential. In reality, almost every person has the potential for brilliance in life. But few people really move outside of their small box that they grow accustomed too. Being a confident woman means trying new tings. Take risks, go to new places, and make a new contact. Exercise your personal potential to build your levels of confidence.

3. Try New Things. This leads to the next point for building a stronger sense of confidence which is to try new things. One reason people don't have a lot of confidence is because of the lack of trying something that takes them out of their comfort zone. Try something new and unusual everyday. Once you give something a try it breaks the feelings of anxiety or fear from that thing. The power of that situation, thing, place, or person to control or limit you in some way evaporates once you give it a try.

4. Create Your Wealth. Everyday someone tells you to create your wealth. While that's a statement with truth attached, you also need to know what that really means. You can only create your wealth when you know how. Knowing how requires knowing your real strengths. Women can function for years without ever really knowing their real strengths. Your confidence will soar when you know that you are working from your strengths. That is how you can confidently go about the activities necessary to create your wealth.

5. Embrace Your Power. Power is a good thing to have when you're in business. Power gives you the ability to get things done. A confident woman in business must understand and embrace her power. Understanding power means knowing how to influence others to get things done. It also means knowing what to say, when to say it, and whom to say it too. There are obvious and not so obvious ways to deal with power and a confident business woman learns how these nuances work to increase her effectiveness.

6. Answer the Urge to Create. Confident business women have creative minds and a creative mind is always finding ways to create new things. Creativity means being able to take things that might seem common place in everyday life and combine them in new ways. You come up with solutions by looking at situations from a different angle. It takes confidence to speak out when you have a new idea that runs contrary to normal thinking of the group you're involved with on a daily basis.

7. Learn to Unblock. It takes confidence to face obstacles and go through them anyway. Every business professional will face obstacles; this is a normal part of business operations. But not everyone can look at those obstacles and decide to do what it takes to move through them to reach their intended goals. The confidence to do this comes in knowing that the best possible solution can be found. Seeking solutions in spite of the obstacles unblocks the barriers to success. Doing so is a true sign of confidence in business and leadership.

Being a confident woman in business and leadership is possible when you take the steps to maximize your confidence in business and leadership. You can practice being a powerful problem solver who excels with confidence in your profession. When needed, you can find the mentoring and assistance that will support your business and leadership efforts.

Consuelo Meux, Ph.D. coaches professional and executive women to build the confidence and communication skills to start and grow a small business that generates elegance and financial freedom. Get a free business plan template, resources and other support at her website. Enjoy monthly teleclasses on Communication Skills for Successful Business Women for only $9.95 a month. Private fast track coaching is available for the woman who is ready to move into her success - fast. http://www.consuelomeux.com

First Lady Brands - Observations About Personal Branding From the Presidential Campaign

No one knows what will happen, lights flash around the newly victorious presidential campaigners, nervousness and hope is in the air. Some women revel in this new found visibility. While others, thrust into the national spotlight, stand more removed from the intrusions into their lives.

These women are having their first glimpse of the first lady advantage, a sudden national - even international - visibility, status, and scrutiny a woman receives from being part of a winning U.S. presidential campaign team. They start reshaping their personal brands, because its going to happen anyway. They need a plan to define and manage their brand, or someone else will do it for them whether or not they consent.

All the presidential candidates' wives and female candidates are on the campaign trail for a reason. One motivation is obviously political ambition, often both his and hers. Because the longer most people live, they more they realize how much politics matter, and it matters more than anyone really wants to admit.

In the sprint to the campaign finish, Michelle Obama toured to visit the military families, trying to understand the issues affecting them. In spite of her opposition to the war, she brought some recognition to lives often ignored amidst the controversies of war. Her tour probably softened a little angst in military quarters. It also signaled a pragmatic, nudge of acknowledgment to these voters.

Catherine McCain preferred taking a lower profile, but surfaced to emphasize her work and support for two international children charities. She adeptly side-stepped a broader examination of her wealth and beer franchise by leaving it off the table. It is private matter to her, but its a potential conflict of interest should the voter tide turn.

Sara Palin, as candidate for Vice President, received a boost to her political profile. She drew national attention to disabled children and the wrenching choices she confronted when her fetus displayed abnormalities. Thrown into a media frenzy, her ethics were tested by interrogations into activities as governor. Later, her readiness was tested in interviews about economic and foreign policy, where she showed a lack of preparation.

Hillary Clinton, of course, attained her first lady recognition over a decade ago and successfully converted it into a political career. Despite her early brand advantage, she was unable to successfully reposition herself with party voters. From first lady advantage to a northeastern power broker, she never rose above the scandals that people could not forget.

All these women are extending their personal brand into new territory. They started by aligning with family values and charities. It is a safe introduction, but much more is needed.

So how does anyone broaden and strengthen a personal or professional brand? First, recognize personal or business branding for what it is: Your brand is an expression of who you are, but it also depends on how well you communicate it. To other people, its how you look, act and behave, but filtered from their point of view.

But public perception is not the place to begin defining a brand. Author and life coach Brian Lee, of the Covey Leadership Center, believes "The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself." So to build a resilient foundation, you need to know your core self and what you want to achieve before evaluating the opportunities ahead.

Its from our own integrity and personal strength that we build a lasting brand. But, there is much to be learned along the way. "What we actually learn, from any given set of circumstances, determines whether we become increasingly powerless or more powerful." Building a brand is a long term endeavor and learning process that starts from within. Intertwine it around something worthy because it will become part of you.

Mary W. Brophy has specialized in helping people enhance their personal, professional, and business brands for fifteen years. Her special report 10 Tips for Building Your Brand can be requested by email from http://www.id-bag.com/ which offers designer inspired logo bags that reflect your uniqueness and brand with style.

Personal Branding For Success Seekers

Personal branding describes the process by which an individual and his/her business are marked as a brand. It can be said that the concept of personal branding is based on the success that comes from packaging ones self; it often involves using the name of one individual on various products, services and programs. Personal branding not only relates to the development and achievement of your professional goals, but also your personal goals. It relates to the unique attributes and benefits that you bring each day to everything that you do and to everyone to whom you communicate.

I believe that an important contributor to the success that comes from discovering and leveraging your personal brand is the confidence and comfort of knowing who you are and what your values are. For me, knowing my personal brand helps me to eliminate anything in my life that is not in alignment with who I am. It makes life much easier.

It seems that as children we are learning lessons and transforming our behaviors to please adults; we are learning right from wrong and what pleases and displeases people. As adolescents we strive to fit in - be in the cool crowd, be the funny one, be the smart one, be the athletic one, be the cute (or handsome one), be the ambitious one, the daredevil, the teacher's pet, the musician, the quirky offbeat, and the list goes on. As adolescents, aren't we learning who we are as we compare ourselves with friends, family, neighbors, and those we may admire and envy because we think that someone else has an admirable quality that we don't?

So, let me ask you, what makes you extraordinary? Once you know your personal brand, the rest of the things in life seem to fall into place. Relationships tend to be better, clients are happier, the people with whom you meet are more in line with who you are, and somehow success and abundance is attracted to you.

When I began to discover my personal brand, I noticed that I not only began to feel more at peace, but I also found more opportunities for personal and professional growth. Like many personal brand seekers and achievers, I am continually discovering ways to express myself, have more fun, attract more clients with whom I enjoy working, increase profits, and think more creatively on my personal and professional projects. The transformation that happens when going through different steps in personal branding seems magical at times. Those who have discovered or are beginning to discover their personal brand know what I am talking about. You live more in abundance; you feel freer, lighter, more content, and empowered.

So, let me ask you again, what makes you extraordinary?

Personal Brand Strategist & Designer and creator of the Brand Essentials Home Study Workbook & Guide, Lisa Hromada, provides practical and powerful guidance for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to create strong and memorable brands.

Lisa Hromada offers graphic design and brand development products & services geared toward providing a step-by-step process for designing and marketing your business, so that individuals stand out from the crowd and attract more of your ideal clients.

You can learn more about Lisa Hromada and read more articles on branding and marketing your business at http://www.lisahromada.com

(c) Copyright - Lisa Hromada. All Rights Reserved. When using this article please don't change or alter the contents. Please give full credit to Lisa Hromada and use the bio section as written above.

What is Personal Branding and Do I Really Need It?

Everywhere I turn lately, the term Personal Branding is being hailed as THE way for small businesses to gain the upper hand from their competitors, and from ungainly corporations. It certainly seems to be the latest 'buzz' term being used to spruce up some of yesterday's marketing ideas.

I'll admit that the two words roll off the tongue rather nicely. Personal Branding sounds both intimate and corporate at the same time. But what is it and do you need to know about it?

Personal Branding is important
You may believe that you don't need to worry about personal branding. I disagree. Whether you are a sole trader or you have staff, the vision and the values behind the business are yours. And yours is the face that people see and associate with your business.

Remember that people don't buy from company logos, brochures or websites; they buy from people whom they've got to know, like and trust. In other words, they buy from YOU.

Web 2.0 is full of opportunity
Just a few short years ago it was very expensive to have a website built. Now, every small business can have a presence on the internet at no financial outlay at all! They used to be very technical and full of geeky mystique, that's no longer the case either. The internet isn't going away, it's evolving at a rapid pace.

The online social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, etc.) are full of business owners who are building visibility and establishing themselves online. They're building their personal brands. I've been on Twitter since April 2008 and have seen for myself the number of UK small businesses joining literally exploding since the beginning of 2009! They've realised that they need to take part.

It's just another way of marketing
If you go to networking meetings, (and I hope you do because it's a very important marketing activity!) you'll probably see some of the same people over a period of time. And I expect you've noticed that certain people seem to be everywhere! Based on what happens each time you see them, you'll gradually form an opinion about the type of person they are and what their business is about. As they will about you! That's personal branding. What networking online does is to put that process on steroids!

In this economy you can't afford to be invisible
If you need more clients (or more business from your current clients) then you already know you need to be actively marketing and getting your name and message out there often. That's personal branding. Your clients are very selective in what they spend their money on, especially now, so you need to use every weapon in your marketing armoury to make sure they spend it with you. And they won't do that if they don't hear from you. They'll spend their money on someone who is more visible and who makes the most noise (ie. Who is building their brand). That could be your competitor.

Are you really going to stand by and let that happen? I didn't think so!

Build your Personal Brand and get more business

• Make sure your message is consistent - on all your marketing materials AND on the internet.
• Plan a campaign to *pull* people in to become your clients
• Be seen often, in many places and by lots of potential clients
• Build your credibility as a specialist in what you do

Take action now!

© Louise Barnes-Johnston, 2009

Louise Barnes-Johnston is a Business Accelerator, popular speaker, trainer and qualified Coach with over 10 years experience in small business marketing offline and online. She shows entrepreneurs, sole-traders and owners of established businesses exactly how to move up to the next level and achieve what really matters to them. If you liked this article, you'll love the free e-book "10 Ways to Boost Your Business: How to get the stuff that really matters to you!" You can download it now from http://www.frontline-results.com and get access to practical advice and marketing ideas to move your business forward.

Personal Branding for Women Leaders

Branding and personal branding are hot topics in business and personal development now. Why all the buzz? Businesses and people with the strongest brands are the most successful and make the most money. You may think it is odd that a person would have a brand. A brand is more than a logo. In the case of a personal brand, your brand is a sum of your behaviors, attitudes, actions and personal style. It's what you are known for and makes up your reputation and image.

It's the same for business, except businesses use logos, websites and marketing materials to represent those qualities. To be noticed and be a successful leader, you should be able to define your personal brand. Your personal brand is a combination of who you are and what you stand for.

Wildly successful, Oprah clearly knows who she is and what she stands for - empowering women. Her personality, vision for and commitment to women has contributed to her phenomenal success.

Who do you admire? What are her personal qualities? What contributes to her success?

You can strengthen your presence, your leadership, your results by focusing on and identifying your personal strengths and talents (who you are) and what difference you want to make and what results you want to create (what you stand for.)

You'll know you have a strong personal brand when you show up and people say about you:

I need to meet her

She is someone I need to know

Or other people will say, "You need to know her" about you.

Other ways you'll know you have a strong personal brand are that you are top-of-mind for special projects, promotions, big opportunities, new clients. People trust you because they know who you are and what you stand for.

Women don't always take time to focus on who they are. We try to be everything to everybody in order to avoid conflict, be helpful, keep the relationships. This comes from that outdated superwoman myth. Time to abolish that notion!

Top leaders know what to say yes to and when to say no, which I find is a skill women often need to learn. You strengthen your personal brand and leadership style when you understand when to say yes and when to say no.

I firmly believe that women can be leaders in restoring the economy by focusing on who they are and what they do best. It's a great time to identify your personal brand of leadership.

To get started on your personal brand:
1. List three to five areas where you really shine. Identify situations where you felt the most satisfied. One of my personal examples is a team sales pitch I led for a former employer that resulted in winning a large account with a Fortune 500 company. The skills and talents I used to lead that process are part of my personal brand.

2. Purchase the book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. It comes with a code for an online assessment that will identify your top five talents. The book offers suggestions for each talent identified.

To know what you stand for, take some time to think about:
1. What do I want to create? What results? What relationships?
2. Where are my passions? What difference do I want to make?

Mother Teresa stood for ending poverty and hunger. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, stood for helping tribes in indigenous cultures create micro-economies. Women like Mary Kay Ash and Estee Lauder had a unique vision and used their talents to innovate both cosmetics and a business model that supports women.

Your personal brand is already within you. When you are clear on who you are and what you offer, you can be unstoppable. Defining your personal brand will enhance your reputation, build your confidence and empower you as a leader.

© 2009 Kathy Garland, all rights reserved.

Kathy Garland, http://www.kathygarland.com is a transformational leader who works with women leaders on their brands, client acquisition and creating focus for the future and frequently writes and speaks on these topics. She resides in McKinney, Texas and works with clients on branding and client acquisition across the U. S. and Canada.

Thought Leaders - Using Article Marketing To Entrench Yourself and Your Personal Brand

A "Thought Leader" is someone recognized as an authority in their field of expertise...also known as a visionary. Few people set out to become a "thought leader" or "guru," but there is good reason to not only establish yourself as an expert, but as a higher-level expert or "thought leader" for your market.

How can you become a "thought leader" for your niche or industry?

Besides risk-taking, leading a company that leads an industry, being vocal in your own blog and posting comments on other blogs & top industry forums within your niche... the easy answer to saturate the market is via the use of syndicated articles!

Here's a mini-course on how to get started to build your own "thought leadership" following via submissions of EzineArticles:

QUANTITY: You'll need more than 100 articles to really do this right, and as you approach the 500-1,000 article level, you'll be closer to reaching a saturation point that builds a buzz around your name, your ideas, your articles and your expert opinions.

Could you influence a market with 1 or 2 articles? Nope. Can you do it with 10-50 articles? Perhaps 10 years ago you could. Today's market is very competitive and as such, you need to do more than 'what everyone else does' if you want to stand out and get to the top, especially if you're in a niche that is very popular already.

QUALITY: You want to use your articles to communicate your single-minded focus as the expert of your niche. This means quality articles, very little babble, and 1 or 2 links in the resource box that must reinforce your expertise and personal brand. This is not the time to be an affiliate marketer.

Example: If you want people to take your Digital Photography business seriously, you can't post a Geocities, Tripod, etc. junk URL in your article resource box...but rather, you must post a domain name that you own that further solidifies the unity of your message. Also, leave out domains that you own that have nothing to do with the purpose of the article you're writing.

Note: Quality does not mean high word-count quantity. Best if you keep your word-count in the 250-500 words per article so that you can achieve a high article count. A 500-word article performs the same as a 5,000-word article, so why give the marketplace more than they can absorb in an easy reading? Today's reader "scans" rather than deliberately reading every word of your articles.

CONTROVERSY: Unlike other article writing reasons, when you write to achieve market "thought leadership" status, you must stir up the market by taking some gray issues and make them black and white. This is a good opportunity to take current events and provide your expert analysis and support reasons why certain issues are good or bad for the market, economy, world, etc.

CONSISTENCY: Using article marketing or putting your hundreds of articles into distribution is not a one-shot Charlie routine, but rather it's a drum you begin beating and every week for a few years you pound your article submission drums louder and louder.

It pays to create a burst of submissions (50-250) when you initially start, and then taper off to 10-100 new submissions per month until you reach a market saturation point that you feel puts your voice, your brand, your articles at the front of the pack.

PROMOTION: Once you put your articles into distribution via the various article directories, ezine publishers, and specialty web directories of your niche - the next step is to promote them further by using them to establish credibility as you participate in forums, blog comments, your own blog/online journal, and your email newsletter.

"Thought Leadership" via Syndicated Articles Conclusion:

It is possible to take the net by storm to position yourself as a 'thought leader' via putting hundreds and thousands of your articles into distribution. Within 6-18 months, you can become known as a "thought leader" in your niche if you'll do what no one else is doing and in a volume/quality that no one else had done to date for your niche. There is time and you can do it. Go for it! :-)

About The Author: Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best quality original articles for massive exposure to the high-traffichttp://EzineArticles.com/ expert author community. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links intact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today:http://EzineArticles.com/submit/ (c) Copyright - Christopher M. Knight. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.